Category: CCM240

In my two recent blog posts, I have been writing about things that are related to and things in my life in some way. For this blog, I am going to be honest, it is going to be no different. So lets get started.

Everyone whether young or old has experienced a sense of not feeling confident in their own skin and how they look. One of the main problems that cause that is their actual skin. If they have acne, dry skin, a scar on their face, or really any skin problem you can think of this causes people to obsess over every little detail they see or that appears, and the problems that have with their skin start to take over their life. I can relate to this 100%. When I was younger and up to this very day I grew up having severe eczema (and yes like the fine “you got eczema”). I have struggled with my skin and it eventually started to have an impact on how I am feeling that day or if I want to go. Before I dive into how it affected me, I’m going to tell you a little more about it.

What is Eczema?

Eczema affects more than 31 million Americans. According to the National Eczema Association, they said “eczema is an inflammatory skin condition that can cause dry skin, itchy skin, scaly patches, and blister”; and I know what you are probably thinking that’s gross, or that sucks, or you could be thinking both things and you aren’t wrong. Eczema comes in 6 different forms:

1. atopic dermatitis
2. contact dermatitis
3. dyshidrotic eczema
4. nummular eczema
5. seborrheic dermatitis
6. stasis dermatitis

But in this post, we are going to focus mostly on the first one, atopic dermatitis which also happens to be the most common. so what causes it?

Causes:

Although there are many contributors to eczema here are a couple.

• extended exposure to cold or hot temperatures
• bathing products like body wash, face wash
• Certain jewelry metals and types of fabrics

Eczema flare-ups occur when an irritant from outside the body or within triggers your immune system and causes inflammation which is the flare-up. Although researchers don’t know exactly the root cause there are leaning towards the idea that protein called filaggrin is a protein that helps retain moisture and locked into our skin, but because there is a deficiency this could explain the dryness and itchiness of the skin.

Symptoms and treatments

I listed some of the symptoms at the beginning of this post but just to reiterate, you can have dry and itchy skin, oozing of cuts, swelling, and discolored skin. Today there is no known cure for eczema and make it go away forever. Right now there are only treatments that can be perscribed based of how serve it is and what kind you have.

Treatments

• prescribed topical medications
• Immunosuppressant and shots
• natural treatments
• bleach baths
• cryotherapy

the most common one that is prescribed and what I have been on the most is being on the prescribed topical medications.

Overall each case is different and some people are able to get rid of it and grow out of it and others are not. In my next post I will go over how having this type of problem affected my day-to-day life.

Doubles volleyball (beach)

There have been many different types of styles of volleyball. Over the years volleyball has been changed and different rules have been created to make the game better and help keep the athletes safe. In this blog we are going to be talking about doubles volleyball.

When people think of doubles volleyball, everyone’s brain thinks of beach volleyball during the Olympics which is one of two different types of doubles volleyball. The second type is grass doubles. between these two types, there isn’t that much different except the kind of terrain the players play on. When compared to the normal 6 vs 6 volleyballs the rules are a little bit different.

How the Doubles Volleyball is Different form Indoor

Scoring: indoor they can play up to five sets where four out of the five sets go to 25 points and the fifth set only goes to 15, whereas in beach doubles is best out of three and the first two sets go up only to 21 and the tiebreaker goes up to 15

Size of court: The indoor volleyball court is drastically bigger than a doubles court because you have more people to cover more ground wherein doubles there is only two of you

There are also changes in the way you are allowed to handle the ball when you play and example of that is in indoors you are lowed to use one hand or two for the first contact but in beach, you have to have your hands together for the first contact unless there is a hard-driven ball at coming at you and you don’t have the much time to react.

Most commonly in universities, they have indoor volleyball, but a good amount of D1 schools with a couple of D2 and D3 also have beach volleyball.

Top Ten Best Beach Volleyball (Division 1)

1. University of California Las Angeles
2. Stanford University
3. University of California Berkeley
4. Florida State University
5. University of Southern California
6. California State University Long Beach
7. Pepperdine University
8. University of California Davis
9. Tulane University
10. University of Washington

Playing doubles can be a fun activity to do with friends, but keep in mind playing on sand is a lot harder than playing on grass. When I was a couple of years younger my sister and I would do a couple of doubles tournaments together which would be really fun because we connected well and ended up placing first which is even better. Although playing with my sister could be difficult because we would but heads a couple of times. In the end, watching doubles volleyball can be really entertaining and there is so much work that is put into that sport, to succeed. But it is also just fun to grab a couple of friends and play for fun!

Twins

Did you know there are over several types of twins? Most people always wonder what it is like to have someone look very similar to you if not exactly the same. People tend to assume that being a twin is amazing and think that almost every single twin is each other’s best friend and never leaves each other’s side. Which I am here to tell that really isn’t the case.

There are about seven types of twins that we know of

1. Mirror Twins
2. Conjoined twins
3. Parasitic Twins
4. Semi-identical
5. Identical
6. Fraternal
   1. Being a fraternal twin can be many things, for example, you can be the same gender or you can be twins of the opposite gender

I am a fraternal twin. From the day I was born up until I went to college I always had my sister by my side. My sister and I are fraternal twins meaning we came from two separate eggs instead of one. I can tell you right now, my experience being a twin isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Being a twin isn’t always what everyone thinks it is and we are nice to each other all the time. When my sister and I got to middle school through high school, we had our fair shares of ups and downs. There would be days that we would be each other’s best friends. But there would be others where halfway through the day we would fight about something stupid and despise each other for the rest of the day, but depending on what the argument was about we would act like nothing ever happened a couple of hours later.

Being a twin does come with some perks. When playing the same sport and joining new teams, and or going to sports clinics; you never have to worry about not knowing someone there, because your twin is always there you will always have a partner for drills and never have to feel awkward trying to find a teammate to practice with during a drill. The main point I am trying to get out is that no matter where you go whether it’s a new place or not, you will always no someone there.

Although knowing someone wherever you go and doing everything together can have its downfall. When doing things with your twin-like being in the same class or playing on the same sports team, you are always being compared to each other. Your twin could be better at a skill than you are and people expect you to be as good because you look alike and forget that we are our own person and have different strengths and weaknesses. Being a twin means meeting new people as so and so’s twin, if your twin already met them first instead of just being known as you. Twins can always end up living in the other twin’s shadows, and it is hard to make a name for themselves or just be their own person. If there is one thing you took away from this post is that being a twin doesn’t mean they are exactly alike. The only thing that is probably the same is how they look, but they could have completely different personalties and interests.